My Triumphant Return to BJJ... I hope

So my six months of no contact sports is almost over. I will be getting another MRI in the next week or two and I will find out if my back has healed enough for me to ever do jiu jitsu again. I am trying not to get too hopeful in case I find out that I can never go back. If I am able to return, I will need to ease back in BJJ slowly so as not to re-injur myself.

Training Update

I am now halfway done with my 6 month period of rest before I get another MRI of my back to see if I can go back to jiu jitsu. I have been following the paleo diet very strictly and lifting almost every day. In the month following the discovery of my injured back I ate like crap and put on 16 lbs. In the past 4 weeks I lost all of that weight and am now down to 178. I am looking to drop another 8 pounds before I switch to trying to put on muscle. I am frustrated because I have been sick for the past 3 days and haven't been able to go to the gym.

Picture of me as riddler killing time at comicon till I can go back to jiu jiutsu

Avoid Beginner Mistakes: Don't be "That Guy"

A few days ago I read a post about the annoying types of people people who do Brazilian jiu jitsu. I wanted to link to the article but I didn't save the link. I realized after reading it that I was similar to many of the "annoying guy" types when when I was a beginner.

My Beginner BJJ Mistakes

Don't spaz out and hurt people

When I first started I was super spazzy, I would use raw power at all times trying brute force moves and attempting to jump over guard. Looking back I feel like a total jerk because I put so many people at risk of injury because of my ego. As I gained skill and realized that injuries happen I have gotten my rolling under control and act much calmer and safer.

My first couple of weeks I would wear my gi like 3 times before washing it. I honestly don't think my gi ever smelled that bad cause I would air it out and sniff it but it is still not a good idea. It wasn't till after I got a staph infection that someone mentioned that not washing your gi is dangerous and can spread disease.

 The one thing I still struggle with is trying too hard. I am naturally a really competitive person, and that is why I'm so interested in grappling tournaments. It is hard for me to just let go of my ego and take things easier. I am working on it but I still have room to improve in this department.

Advice for BJJ Beginners

 As a jiu jitsu beginner it is only natural to not realize you are being annoying and pissing people off. Unless someone complains or you read a list of do and don't for BJJ you aren't going to realize what you are doing wrong. If you are new to BJJ I highly recommend asking a higher belt you trust if you are making any new guy mistakes, preferably a purple belt or up so they have seen plenty of new guys that have ha d annoying habits.

Injured: No BJJ Training, No Grappling Tournaments

No BJJ Training for 6 Months

If you look at the archives you will notice that I stopped posting for around a month. Around a week before my grapplers quest tournament I found out that I had a herniated disc in my back and could not do any sports for 6 months or more. It took a while for me to figure out how I had hurt my back, and no it was not BJJ but running. A year ago when I was training for a triathlon I was doing some really hard high intensity interval training which ended up herniating my back. It wasn't until I started seeing a chiropractor 2 months ago that I finally started making progress with healing.

I was really upset at first so I abandoned blogging so I wouldn't have to think about it. Now I am starting to really miss it, thus here I am back again. One month down, 5 to go.

It is time for me to start training more

When I first started with jiu jitsu I was training 3 times a week. My biggest issue with training more was that my elbows would kill me at the end of rolling because from the top I would try to overpower the legs of the person I was rolling with. I am pretty strong and at the time I weighed over 200 so I had some success but it was a pretty stupid idea in terms of efficiency. Since then I have learned to fight peoples legs with my body weight instead of my arms so I no longer have problems with my arms.

Once that was solved I began training 4 to 5 times a week. I developed a problem with my knee because I was always standing the the person in guard would bend my knee in funny directions. I now wear knee braces and have learned to stay as close to the ground as possible to avoid the possibility of hurting my knee.

Since I have fixed my problems and seem to be able to roll without injuring myself anymore I think I can increase my training to 8 times a week. I will need to start going to a second gym because my gym only has 5 days of instruction a week and I would like as much instruction as possible. I need to learn technique so I don't need to rely on overpowering my opponent. I am trying to be prepared for the IBJJF New York Open, so I need all the training I can get so I have a chance to with the tournament.